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<p>We are committed to ensuring all small businesses have access to the advice and
support they need to start, grow, and scale up their businesses.</p><p> </p><p>The
Government-backed British Business Bank (BBB) is there to make finance markets work
better for small businesses at all stages of their development. The Bank’s programmes
are currently supporting over £6.6bn of finance to over 89,000 smaller businesses.
The BBB’s Start-Up Loans programme provides loans to entrepreneurs seeking to start
and grow their own businesses. Since 2012, the Programme has delivered over 67,000
loans, worth over £534m and 99 of these, totalling £857,912 went to small businesses
in Sutton Coldfield constituency.</p><p> </p><p>All businesses can access core services,
information and guidance on starting up and running a business, as well as their statutory
rights and obligations, on our GOV.UK websites, and our Business Support Helpline
forms a key part of the government’s offer to SMEs in England, providing trusted and
joined-up information and sign-posting businesses to relevant sources of support.
In 2018, it helped 31,500 businesses, of which 65% were entrepreneurs and start-ups.</p><p>
</p><p>There are 38 Growth Hubs, one in each Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) area
providing a free and impartial, local single point of contact to all businesses, no
matter their size or sector, to access advice and support from across the public and
private sectors. The 6 Growth Hubs that encompass the wider West Midlands region have
self-reported that in 2018-2019 they helped in excess of 10,864 businesses.</p><p>
</p><p>Through three rounds of competitive Growth Deals, Government has invested over
£9bn of funding, boosting national productivity and growth.</p><p>The LEPs in the
West Midlands region have been awarded Growth Deal funding totalling £1,080.2m and
City Deal funding of £59.8m to invest in projects that benefit the local area and
economy. This includes projects such as Universities@IBC where Greater Birmingham
and Solihull LEP has invested £2.49m to provide additional state-of-the-art enterprise
space, extending the existing Faraday Wharf business incubation building at the Innovation
Birmingham Campus.</p><p> </p><p>SME’s in the West Midlands will also benefit from
The Midlands Engine Investment Fund, which is providing a huge investment of over
£250 million. It will support small businesses in the Midlands to start and grow,
it has now invested nearly £50 million into over 140 SMEs.</p><p> </p><p>We will continue
to work to make small business owners more aware of the wide range of advice and support
available to them.</p>
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